


Corners

by StAnni



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Angst, Break Up, Cheating, Established Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-08-19 19:31:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16540763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StAnni/pseuds/StAnni
Summary: When Selina’s mouth finally opens to his, warm and eager, he can feel her fingers bruise as they grasp into his shoulders – digging for purchase and he is done for.  He has always been done for when it comes to her.





	Corners

There was a morning, years ago, back when they really were barely just past their teens, the youngest of adults, when he walked up to his bedroom and Selina was there waiting for him, curled on his bed, shoes and all, bored – paging through a book.  
And he couldn’t stop the smile that softly rose from the warmth in his chest.  
“You’ve not got anything better to do than stalk me?”  
Her smile was subdued, and for a split second he regretted the quip. But then she chuckled and tossed the book. “Apparently not, B.” 

When Selina’s mouth finally opens to his, warm and eager, he can feel her fingers bruise as they grasp into his shoulders – digging for purchase and he is done for. He has always been done for when it comes to her. 

He wakes up with her hand, soft and small, palm down, on his chest. She looks even younger when he sleeps and Bruce turns around quietly so as not to wake her.  
But she opens those eyes – green as all the world. “You okay?”  
Bruce doesn’t hesitate to smile “Yes.”

Then there are explosions, random and violent robberies. Gordon is at his wits end and Bruce stares at him, dully, as he tries to piece the clues together. Selina comes home with a burn wound on her leg. Her lies are pale and flimsy. “Accident at the club.”  
Selina turns up in the middle of night at times, bullet grazes and dried blood. She smells of gunpowder and smoke.  
He can’t judge her for living a double life – but he dreads the day their alter egos cross paths.

Bruce lies awake at night imagining the day that Gordon will turn to him, disappointed and insulted, finally realising that he knew all along. Some hero.

He was going to ask her to move in, to give up her crappy apartment. But he is scared of the mess she will trail to his door now, and he feels like shit even thinking it. She can see him pulling away, she is anything if not relentlessly perceptive. 

“Why are you looking at me like that? Like I’m a stranger or somethin’.”  
He glances away from her, shakes his head “I’m not.”  
He is. 

So there are arguments now, worse than before.  
Selina’s expression is defensive, she crosses her arms – she waits.  
“Selina, please stop. You’re going to hurt someone, you’re going to end up in jail. Stop, stop all of it.”

He can see the disgust at his proposition in her eyes. She doesn’t even need to say it.  
“Like how you’ll stop?”

On the night after his twenty eight birthday Alfred introduces him to Rachel. Selina, out somewhere in the dark, is none the wiser.  
Rachel is beautiful, kind and possibly one of the best people he has ever met.  
Where Selina was cagey, Rachel is honest. Where Rachel is easily relaxed Selina, despite a calm veneer, was always strumming with agitation. 

That night he lies awake in Rachel’s apartment, her knee a soft weight on his own.  
She doesn’t open her eyes when she speaks. “Do you regret it?”  
Bruce hesitates, then decides “No.”

He feels ill, physical ill as he braces himself over the sink. Selina is in his bed, asleep.  
Bruce looks at his face in the mirror, still wet from the water he splashed on a moment ago. He doesn’t look like himself. 

As if she knows, Selina turns her attentions to him. She is careful, she is sure to be at her apartment when he calls. There are no more midnight disappearances. There are no screaming arguments – no random guns hidden in his house anymore. There is a silence as wide and heavy as his guilt, ebbing and growing inside of him.

“Selina, wake up.”  
And Selina blinks at him in the darkness, confused.  
“What’s wrong?”  
Because the fight doesn’t come. It won’t come, not anymore – it’s time to turn corners.  
“I met someone else.”

Selina looks at him with disappointment, hurt and, finally, hate that he has never seen her betray before.  
And without a word, without a glance back at him – she disappears into the night.


End file.
